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Pussy Riot Coming To New York (For One Night Only) To Launch US Tour

Chelsea gallery Lombard-Freid Projects will host a showing of all five of the group’s videos in a special benefit event scheduled for September 10 and aimed at supporting the women’s families. The showing will include Pussy Riot’s last work, filmed in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior and for which they were arrested in March. Organizers, who are working together with Amnesty International, expect the event to launch a nationwide tour of the works to familiarize the American public with the art — and courage — of the Russian punk band.

The idea, according to the gallery’s Lea Freid, was hatched only last Friday, August 17, when she was contacted by curator VictoriaDushinka about exhibiting the projects, which date from 2011. The gallery has arranged to have all the videos subtitled, allowing viewers to experience the full political and punk references of the group’s lyrics and, says Freid, “to know it’s not just women screaming in the church.” (The three detained members of the group, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich, face a two-year sentence for a one-minute performance titled “Holy Madonna, Send Putin Away,” which they staged at the cathedral in February.) Rather, explains Freid, “we want to show the work so people can understand it’s not just about being provocative. The events are also poetry; they are real performances, each with a specific purpose.”

Freid and Dushinka especially hope to raise awareness of the human aspect of the women’s story. “”These are not just performance artists,” she says. “They are women with families, with elderly fathers and children at risk of being placed into foster care.”

Among the videos is one filmed across from a prison, where Pussy Riot performed after people were randomly arrested off the streets following a protest against Putin. “ It’s art and performance, and something we all should be familiar with,” says Freid.

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